Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud has sensationally claimed that the team failed to win the Premier league title last season largely because they are not mature enough to hold onto the lead that they had during Christmas. Arsenal went on to the New Year with a five-point advantage, which soon became a huge deficit towards the end of the season. They saw Manchester city winning the second league title in three years, but Giroud feels that Arsenal could have certainly won the title had they showed more maturity over the course of the campaign.

Despite this disappointment, the season was still a memorable one for the gunners since they finally managed to lift a major trophy for the first time in nine years. Giroud was a major reason towards the club winning the FA Cup title last season. He says that there is no reason why Arsenal cannot build on the success going into the new campaign. Arsenal are expected to strengthen in several areas of the pitch including the attack. Giroud said a few months ago that the club needed to sign a new striker in order to share his burden.

The Frenchman started most of the matches in the first half of the campaign and he finished the season with 16 league goals.

“We were on top for a good half of the season and then we cracked. I believe we lacked maturity and that we had a lot of injuries at an important time. Above all we weren’t able to adapt to the big teams. We have to show progress in these matches, to maybe play less football, but it’s difficult because it’s our playing philosophy,” said the Frenchman, who is going to take part in the World Cup 2014 with the national team squad. He will hope to reach the latter stages of the World Cup 2014.